The Stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an Upper Palaeolithic Site in Northern England

Abstract

The sediments of Kirkhead Cave, a truncated phreatic conduit in the Morecambe Bay karst of northern England, have been investigated by scanning electron microscopic, granulometric, petrographic, palynologic and stratigraphic methods. These show that almost all the deposits in the cave are glacigenic sediments, reworked into the cave by a variety of transporting agencies. Investigation of the deposits by radiometric, magnetostratigraphic and biostratigraphic methods suggests that the fill represents a near-continuum of deposition from at least pollen zone III of the Late-glacial until modern times. Within the deposits is evidence of use of the cave by man from later upper palaeolithic (Creswellian) times onwards. However, no definite evidence has been found of later upper palaeolithic use of the cave prior to the middle of pollen zone III. It is therefore suggested that the occupation of marginal areas of upper palaeolithic colonization, such as the far north of northern England, after the last glaciation may have taken place somewhat later than has previously been recognized. 15. S. J. Gale and C. O. Hunt, STRATIGRAPHY OF KIRKHEAD CAVE EAST WEST Pre -19th century excavation level | I Stalagmite 5m

The Stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an Upper Palaeolithic Site in Northern England: Discussion

“…Two errors in our original report (Gale and Hunt 1985) are corrected here. First, after consultation with R. C. Preece, we reassign the molluscan species Vitrea subrimata to the group Vitrea sp.…”

“…The bulk of the fieldwork which led to the published reports on Kirkhead Cave (Gale etal. 1984;Gale and Hunt 1985) was conducted by Gale, Hunt and Southgate during 1982, whilst some preliminary palaeomagnetic samples were collected by Gale in 1979. Having corrected the more important factual errors in Salisbury's paper, we now deal with his criticisms in the order in which they appear in his text.…”

“…was discovered during the excavations of the 1960s and 1970s, and that below this were discovered nine flint tools (although the original excavators appear to have recorded ten such implements (Wood et al 1969, 21;Ashmead and Wood 1974, 27)). We are told that Gale and Hunt (1985) assigned the artefacts to the laminated beds when in reality they came from the beds overlying these (the 'lower silty loams' of Gale and Hunt (1985)). Since our discussion of the lower silty loams (Gale and Hunt 1985, 292) makes it obvious that the artefacts were discovered within that unit, we can only point out that we are in agreement with Salisbury on this issue.…”

“…We are then told that Gale and Hunt (1985) dismissed '... the presence of the artefacts by stating that they could have been reworked into the laminated beds from older deposits or that their location may not have been correctly recorded by the original excavators' (Salisbury 1986, 321). In fact, the relevant passage from our paper (Gale and Hunt 1985, 300) makes it clear that we are discussing the location of the antler boss of Megaloceros sp.…”

The Stratigraphy of Kirkhead Cave, an Upper Palaeolithic Site in Northern England: a comment.

“…In the limited space available it is possible only to mention briefly a few of the more important issues. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ashmead, P., Wood, R. H. and Mellars, P., 1969 The recent publication of palaeoenvironmental analyses of sediments from Kirkhead Cave, Cumbria (Gale and Hunt 1985) has prompted a consideration of some of the difficulties presented in multi-disciplinary investigations. Comments here will be restricted to the work undertaken at Kirkhead Cave, but more general points regarding such investigations may hopefully emerge.…”